A passenger on the airline, Emirates, was awarded $12600 after he claimed that his experience in business class did not meet the expectations he had from the advertisement for the business class experience.
The incident reported in the Daily Mail involves a New Zealand surgeon Mark Morgan and his partner. The pair had booked two business class tickets for $13,000 to fly from Auckland to London last year.
The surgeon claimed that the experience on board business class was so unsatisfactory that he decided to take the case against Emirates to the Disputes Tribunal.
The Disputes Tribunal is a small claims court in New Zealand. The court can hear civil claims that involve disputed sums up to $30,000. The tribunal has offices throughout the country.
Morgan claimed that he and his partners were forced to sit on worn-out chairs. The advertisement had indicated that business class passengers would be provided with flat, reclining leather seats.
He also claimed that the entertainment system on board the plane was faulty.
The airline's defense was that the advertisement was only targeted toward specific planes in the Emirates fleet that were equipped with those kinds of seats.
Moreover, they stated that the airline's fine print does not provide a guarantee that those particular planes will be used.
In turn, Morgan argued that the marketing used by the airlines was intended to trap New Zealand customers into purchasing tickets from Emirates instead of other airlines.
The Disputes Tribunal ended up agreeing with Morgan and requested the airline to pay up to $12,600.
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